The grand revelation at the Electronic Entertainment expo (E3) in 2008 had the internet heaving with reports, statements and commentary on the state of modern videogame development, and of the Final Fantasyfranchise. As predicted by Electronic Theatre following its original unveiling as a PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) exclusive title back at E3 2006, two years later Final Fantasy XIII was confirmed as a release for Xbox 360 also. A year on, and following the revelation of Final Fantasy XIV, and it seems that Square Enix’s promises to PS3 fans that the Xbox 360 conversion would be secondary to development on Sony’s system may well have had some basis.
Though the title will arrive simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PS3 in the US and across Europe, it seems that the development of the Xbox 360 version didn’t actually begin until a short time before this year’s E3 (which took place in Los Angeles earlier this month). According to Giant Bomb, Yoshinori Kitase stated that, “Up to the trial demo version that was released [in April] in Japan, [Final Fantasy XIII] was PS3-only in terms of development... The Xbox 360version is definitely following after the PS3 version, but [we] were finally able to come to a point in the PS3 development where some of the staff could take their hands off and start programming the 360 version.”
Though the Xbox 360 version of the game remains in very early stages of development, it is apparently already playable. Using their in-house cross-platform development suite, known as Crystal Tools, it’s highly likely that Square Enix have found porting the PS3 version to Xbox 360 a less taxing task than it may have been to bring an Xbox 360 game to the PS3 system, as the PS3 is widely regarded as a more complex system upon which to develop software.
With Final Fantasy XIII being one of the most highly-anticipated titles of the Current-Generation so far, this news will undoubtedly elate PS3 fans, while giving Xbox 360 owning Role-Playing Game (RPG) fans more fuel for their fire. With the RPG sector of the videogames industry being perhaps the most elitist of all, it’s more than likely we’ll see some rampant debate on the matter over in the Electronic Theatre Forum. Electronic Theatre will of course keep you updated with all the latest information onFinal Fantasy XIII and the rest of the Final Fantasy franchise.
